The west is trying frantically to implicate China for Venezuela's current troubles.
It is the west that has, for decades, tried to overthrow the government of Venezuela using
covert operations internal to Venezuela and massive overt sanctions against Venezuela.
There are really no more sanctions the west can muster against Venezuela.
Just because the US won't buy Venezuelan oil doesn't mean nobody else can.
A China Venezuela oil agreement would be welcomed by both sides.

Since the US went overseas to kill over a million people in Southest Asia simply for wanting to follow
a socialist leader is there anyone so gulliable as to think the US wouldn't try every means at their
disposal to cripple, vilify, and oust the socialist government of Venezuela?

The article states that the loans to Venezulela from China are "opaque" but then, as if the author's
clairvoyancy kicks in, he states an oil trade agreement between China and Venezuela is "one-sided".
The loan agreements have been available for western spying far longer than any potential oil trade
agreement. Obviously this western author is taking liberties with the facts to make his western
propaganda even more sensational.
What could be more one-sided than the west creating the state of Israel to throttle all of Arabia
militarily so cheap oil could be extracted from that vast expanse?

Even more amusing is the author's statement against Venezuela;
"deep-state narcotrafficking, and without checks and balances"
What kind of checks and balances does he want to see in illegal international narcotrafficking?
And we all know who, by far, the biggest consumer of these illegal drugs. The US of course.
If there wasn't such demand by the down trodden in the US there wouldn't be such a huge market for
illegal drugs in the first place.
It's not as if Venezuela is holding a gun to the head of the US in the form of war as the British
did to China during the two opium wars. The US is creating a huge demand for narcotics all on its own.
Besides, what has drug traffic to the US have to do with an oil agreement between China and Venezuela?

Oh well, the west is just sore that another socialist country might be headed for success despite
the west's best efforts to derail it.
Not only did the article vilify China, Russia was thrown in there too for good measure.

-------------------------------------
Nick Cunningham -- OilPrice.com
Venezuela’s oil production fell by another 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) in March, a devastating blow that will only make the country’s economic crisis worse. Output is expected to continue its downward spiral; the only uncertainty is over the pace of decline.

As Venezuela comes apart at the seams, it will hand over more and more control of its natural resources, and even more power over its institutions, to China, according to a new report from the Washington-based Center for Strategic & International Studies.

The report argues that enormous levels of foreign investment may seem beneficial, but that Venezuela’s economic predicament has actually been made much worse by China. Taking advantage of Venezuela’s desperation, China has managed to convince Caracas to sign “one-sided financial agreements” that perpetuate the economic malaise afflicting the country.

Over the past decade, China has sent an estimated $62 billion to Venezuela in one form or another, representing about half of all the money that China has lent to Latin America. For years, Venezuela has been sending oil shipments to China as repayment, and last year it shipped roughly 330,000 bpd to China, sales that earned Caracas little or no revenue.

China’s patience with Venezuela seems to have worn thin. Reuters reported last month that China is likely to roll over a current financing arrangement it has with Venezuela, allowing for lenient repayment terms, but that it won’t lend the Venezuelan government any more money than it already has. China remains Venezuela’s largest debt owner with $23 billion in outstanding debt.

But CSIS argues that China remains a key piece of the puzzle propping up President Maduro’s repressive “narco-regime.” The think tank says that China’s excessive influence is both bad for Venezuela and it also raises security concerns.

China’s hunger for commodities has led to “long-term dependency,” essentially preventing Venezuela – and other commodity-exporting countries in Latin America – from ever developing more sophisticated valued-added sectors of the economy. Venezuela will remain in a colonial-like state, serving as a place for resource extraction for China’s benefit. Indeed, China’s appetite for commodities is only expected to grow.

Moreover, China’s loans to Venezuela are particularly opaque. CSIS says that China has often routed its investment in Venezuela through Hong Kong to undisclosed locations. And oil-for-cash deals are especially difficult to track. Countries that overly dependent on oil exports have historically been prone to corruption, but China’s effort at obscuring the money trail to Venezuela has added “yet another layer to the entrenched corruption of the Maduro regime,” CSIS wrote in its report. “The international community should be skeptical of the seemingly endless amounts of untraceable money pouring into a country with a history of corruption, deep-state narcotrafficking, and without checks and balances.”

That dirty money is then spent on military weapons, rather than food and other essentials for the Venezuelan people. Even as the country crumbles and people go hungry, CSIS says that Venezuela ranks 21st in the world in terms of military expenditures, and first in Latin America. And all that hardware is often put to use against its own people.

Meanwhile, the lack of cash has already resulted in debt defaults. CSIS says that Venezuela has not paid a sovereign bond since September 2017 and is actually in a state of default on 16 sovereign bonds, totaling $1.81 billion in missed payments. Still, up until now, the totals could be minuscule compared to what might lie ahead in the near future – Venezuela has more than $9 billion in bond payments coming due in 2018.

A full-blown debt default would result in a new stage of suffering for the Venezuelan people. It would also leave Caracas with fewer options for selling its oil if creditors around the world try to seize oil shipments. This scenario would also likely result in even greater influence for China and Russia over Venezuela’s resources.

Chinese and Russian state-owned oil companies “will probably market a significant share of PDVSA’s exports and operate an increasing share of its production, guaranteeing the repayment of their loans,” according to March report from the Atlantic Council. In other words, Venezuela will have to more or less hand over its oil to Chinese and Russian companies if it wants to sell any oil on the international market at all.

Unfortunately, there are few good options. The U.S. is reportedly considering sanctions, although it is unclear when or what form those might take. While there is an urge to do something, sanctions would likely only deepen the misery in Venezuela, with uncertain odds of affecting change. Moreover, what is clear is that U.S. sanctions could knock even more oil production offline, significantly raising the odds of default, and potentially opening up Venezuela to more control by China.
-------------------------------------

If capitalism promotes innovation and creativity then why aren't scientists and artists the richest people in a capitalist nation?

Venezuela has invited Russian military pilots, who took part in the military operation in Syria, to share their experience with their Venezuelan colleagues, Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez told reporters after talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu on Tuesday.

"We have discussed matters of our cooperation. We want to go beyond regular military and defense cooperation, to strengthen it and to develop cooperation at the operative level," he said.

The Venezuelan minister said he suggested "sending Venezuelan Su-30 pilots to share their experience in Russia and to invite Russian pilots, who received precious combat experience in Syria, to come and share it with their Venezuelan colleagues."

The official added that he accepted Moscow’s invitation to attend the annual International Security Conference in Moscow

snowipine Post time: 2018-4-8 05:10
CSIS is one of the mouthpieces of the Trump clique.
If all of the Caracas' oil reserves preserved ...

The US is building pipelines and bribing Canada to do environmentally damaging oil extractions from oil sands.
All this so they can have leverage over socialist Venezuela and the middle east.
The Oligarchy of America knows how loud their peasants scream when they can't get cheap gas for their muscle cars.

If capitalism promotes innovation and creativity then why aren't scientists and artists the richest people in a capitalist nation?

robert237 Post time: 2018-4-8 21:34
The US is building pipelines and bribing Canada to do environmentally damaging oil extractions fro ...

The US been sanctioning Venezuela, but in 2017 Goldman Sachs managed to buy $2.8 billion worth of Pdvsa bonds ( also called hunger bonds) maturing in 2022, at a 70 percent discount to the market price.
The largest holders of Pdvsa bonds are BlackRock, T. Rowe Price, Fidelity, JPMorgan Chase and Ashmore.

Venezuela Is in Default, but Goldman Sachs just got paid on their hunger bonds
Venezuela’s oil company makes $90 million bond payment to Goldman...

robert237 Post time: 2018-4-8 21:34
The US is building pipelines and bribing Canada to do environmentally damaging oil extractions fro ...

re: "All this so they can have leverage over socialist Venezuela and the middle east".

Indeed, the West attacked Iraq under the pretence of producing weapon of mass destruction.The real purpose was to get their hands in Iraqi oil.

Iraq boosted its reserves to143 billion barrels last year,up 24 percent, the report said. Iraq has said its reserves increased as work by international oil companies started to yield results. This gives Iraq the 4th largest proven crude reserves in the world’s.